SUMNER — The Emmett Till Interpretive Center (ETIC) invites the public to join them for a virtual screening of the 2021 Sunflower County Film Academy film, "An Army Rising Up," followed by a conversation with the young filmmakers.
The virtual event will take place on Saturday, Aug. 28, at 7 p.m. central via Zoom webinar. Register to attend for free at tinyurl.com/ETICscreening.
Saturday, Aug. 28, marks the 66th anniversary of the day 14-year-old Emmett Till was kidnapped, brutally tortured and murdered in a racially-motivated hate crime in Mississippi.
Till was violently silenced by white supremacists in 1955. This year, the voices of young people in the Mississippi Delta today are being lifted up and the arts are being used to help process pain and tragedy.
The tragedy of Emmett Till's murder and the bravery of his mother in sharing her grief with the world changed the course of our nation’s history. When Rosa Parks was asked why she did not move to the back of the bus in December 1955, she said, “I thought of Emmett Till and said I couldn’t go to the back.” The Till story helped spark the contemporary American Civil Rights Movement, and it continues to resonate with young people today.
Filmmaking workshop students and guest instructor, Christina Huff, center, stand alongside Cassidy Bayou in Sumner gathering nature sound bytes.
In June 2021, 21 young people from across the Mississippi Delta attended a two-week filmmaking workshop at the ETIC to gain hands-on experience using video equipment to document and tell their own stories. The product of the workshop was the film, An Army Rising Up, which follows the young people’s experiences during the workshop and explores the stories of Emmett Till and Fannie Lou Hamer.
“Documentary filmmaking is an integral, impactful, time proven means of storytelling,” said Benjamin Saulsberry, public engagement and museum education director for the ETIC. “Looking at the work and listening to the words of young people gives us an opportunity see how far we've come and where we're headed. We are honored to host this event on a date that holds undeniable historical significance concerning our national narrative; past and present.”
The filmmaking workshop was a collaboration between Fannie Lou Hamer's America and the ETIC and was funded and made possible by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Mississippi Delta National Heritage Area, the Phil Hardin Foundation, the Mississippi Humanities Council, C Spire Foundation, HOPE Enterprises and Credit Union, Music Studio of Marin, ATMOS Energy, Curtis Davis at the Domino's Pizza in Clarksdale, and Kenneth Little at the Walmart Supercenter in Clarksdale.
About the Emmett Till Interpretive Center:
The Emmett Till Interpretive Center was formed to confront the brutal truth of the 1955 murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in the Mississippi Delta and to seek justice for the Till family and Delta community. The center aims to tell the story of Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, as an act of restorative justice to create the conditions necessary to begin the process of racial healing in Mississippi and across the nation.
